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SOUTH  AMERICA 

Talking  Points 

In  body  South  America  is  a rugged  giant  with 
great  riches  at  its  command;  in  mind  and  soul 
South  America  is  stunted  by  illiteracy  and 
irreligion. 

South  America  may  be  termed  the  continent 
of  superlatives.  It  contains  the  highest  peak  in 
the  Western  hemisphere;  the  loftiest  navigable 
lake  in  the  world;  and  the  earth’s  greatest  river. 

B 

The  Amazon  river  system  has  over  50,000  miles 
of  navigable  water  way,  enough  to  tie  two  loops 
around  our  planet. 

B 

And  notwithstanding  all  Col.  Roosevelt’s  dis- 
coveries, South  America  still  has  the  largest 
unexplored  area  of  any  continent. 

B 

Almost  everybody  knows  that  Brazil  is  nearly 
as  large  as  Europe  or  the  continental  United 
States,  but  the  size  of  the  “little  republics”  is  not 
so  well  known.  Texas  could  be  lost  in  “little” 
Venezuela  and  still  leave  room  for  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee! 

B 

It  is  almost  as  far  from  one  end  of  Chile  to  the 
other  as  from  New  York  to  Glasgow. 


2 


And  these  vast  areas  are  not  merely  empty 
spaces. 

m Q 

RESOURCES 

Fifteen  million  ounces  of  silver  is  one  of  South 
America’s  annual  contributions  to  the  world’s 
pocketbook.  This  would  make  more  than 
seventeen  million  silver  dollars. 

0 

The  hills  of  South  America  are  seamed  with 
gold.  It  is  found  in  every  state. 

0 

Almost  all  of  the  emeralds  in  the  world  come 
from  Colombia.  Seven  hundred  thousand  carats 
of  them  are  dug  out  of  her  hills  annually. 

0 . 

Our  famous  copper  mines  in  Michigan,  Mon- 
tana and  Arizona  are  surpassed  in  richness  by 
those  on  the  west  coast  of  South  America. 

0 

The  Bethlehem  Steel  Works  in  Pennsylvania 
could  be  kept  busy  for  seventy-five  years  with 
the  iron  ore  of  one  of  Chile’s  provinces,  Coqu  mbo. 

. . 

More  tin  is  mined  in  Bolivia  than  anywhere  else 
in  the  world  except  in  the  Malay  Peninsula. 

_0 

Chile’s  nitrates  fertilize  the  fields  of  the  world 
and  bring  her  an  annual  revenue  in  export  duties 
of  over  fifteen  million  dollars. 

UJ 

It  is  a day’s  journey  by  train  across  some  of  the 
million-acre  farms  in  Brazil  and  Argentina  where 
they  raise  stock  and  grow  rice,  wheat,  corn, 
alfalfa,  tobacco  and  coffee. 


3 


Brazil  produces  three-fourths  of  the  world’s 
coffee  supply. 

Enough  sugar  is  produced  in  one  province  of 
Argentina  to  sweeten  this  giant  coffee  cup. 

n 

As  a commercial  country  Argentina  rivals 
Canada  and  outranks  Japan,  China,  Australia 
and  Spain;  and  its  agricultural  resources  are  only 
on  the  threshold  of  development. 

B 

The  land  and  wealth  of  most  communities  are 
in  the  hands  of  a few.  Chile’s  tillable  soil  is 
held  by  seven  per  cent  of  the  population. 

B B 

POPULATION 

Only  a third  of  South  America’s  population  is 

of  pure  white  blood.  ^ 

B 

In  Peru  and  Ecuador,  only  one  person  in  sev- 
enteen is  white;  nearly  three-quarters  are  Indian, 
the  rest  are  Chinese  and  mixed — very  mixed. 

a 

A million  immigrants  a year  were  pouring  into 
South  America  before  the  war.  They  came  from 
Italy,  Spain,  Germany,  England,  Holland,  Scan- 
dinavia, Portugal,  China,  Japan  and  India. 

B 

There  are  over  six  million  Africans  among  the 
twenty-five  million  people  in  Brazil  and  many  of 
them  the  crudest  type  of  negro  on  the  American 
hemisphere. 

B B 

EDUCATION 

Three  out  of  every  four  people  in  South  America 
can  neither  read  nor  write. 


4 


In  Brazil  the  rate  of  illiteracy  is  71  per  cent; 
in  Argentina  50  per  cent;  in  Chile  63  per  cent; 
Colombia  80  per  cent.  The  rate  in  the  United 
States  is  7.7  per  cent.  ^ 

Bolivia  recently  offered  a Presbyter  an  minister 
the  position  of  head  of  its  educational  department, 
with  full  powers.  Ecuador  called  in  a Methodist 
preacher  to  help  in  its  normal  schools  and  Peru 
is  using  American  educators  in  the  State  schools. 

0 

Models  for  education  everywhere  are  the 
missionary  colleges,  such  as  Mackenzie  College 
at  Sao  Paulo,  the  American  Institute  at  La  Paz, 
and  the  Girls’  College  at  Santiago. 

0 0 

SANITATION 

There  is  a crying  need  in  South  America  for 
education  along  the  line  of  sanitation  and  public 
hygiene.  q 

Open  sewers  run  through  the  streets  of  many 
cities  and  in  some  sections  smallpox  is  a con- 
tinuous epidemic.  gi 

la  Chile,  which  has  one  of  the  finest  climates  in 
the  world,  the  death  rate  is  twice  that  of  the 
United  States  or  Western  Europe.  Three- 
quarters  of  the  children  there  die  before  reaching 
two  years  of  age. 

0 0 

MORALS 

Illegitimacy  robs  many  children  in  South 
America  of  normal  home  life.  About  one-sixth 
of  the  population  of  Brazil  are  of  illegitimate 
birth,  two-thirds  of  that  of  Venezuela  and  one- 


5 


third  of  that  of  Chile.  Other  countries  in  South 
America  have  more  or  less  the  same  percentage. 

Q 

This  is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  revolutions 
have  greatly  decreased  the  number  of  men  so  that 
in  Paraguay,  for  example,  there  are  two  women 
to  every  man. 

Q 

Another  factor  of  illegitimacy  is  the  high  cost 
of  marriage.  When  the  minimum  fee  for  a reli- 
gious marriage  is  ^8.00  and  a peon  earns  only  a 
few  cents  a day,  the  cost  of  marriage  is  almost 
prohibitive. 

Q Q 

RELIGION 

Irreverence  for  sacred  things  is  a marked 
characteristic  of  the  people.  One  comes  upon 
such  signs  as  ‘‘Butcher  Shop  of  the  Holy  Spirit,” 
“Furniture  Shop  of  the  Saviour.”  A magazine 
carried  a picture  of  Christ  and  Judas,  who  was 
smoking  a certain  brand  of  cigarette.  Judas  is 
saying,  “If  I had  had  such  cigarettes  to  smoke, 
I wouldn’t  have  betrayed  Him.” 

0 

“The  growth  of  unbelief  among  the  men  is  the 
outstanding  fact  in  the  religious  life  of  South 
America,”  says  Edward  Alsworth  Ross. 

0 

It  is  reported  that  90  per  cent  of  the  population 
of  Colombia  are  unbelievers;  in  Ecuador  it  is 
generally  considered  a sign  of  learning  to  express 
doubt  of  Church  dogma;  the  great  mass  of 
students  in  Brazil  and  Peru  are  hostile  to  the 
Church;  and  it  is  said  that  the  members  of  Con- 
gress and  nearly  all  the  government  students  of 
Bolivia  are  sworn  enemies  of  the  Church. 


6 


South  America  is  practically  a Scriptureless 
continent.  Again  and  again  the  priests  have 
burned  Bibles  distributed  by  the  missionaries 
who  were  then  driven  out  of  the  villages  where 
they  were  at  work. 

B 

There  are  several  million  Indians  and  other 
native  peoples  who  have  not  been  reached  by  any 
church  whatever  and  are  as  pagan  as  any  tribes 
in  the  heart  of  Africa. 

0 

In  any  of  the  ten  republics  of  South  America  a 
missionary  could  have  a city  and  dozens  of  towns 
for  his  parish.  In  some  of  the  countries  he  could 
have  one  or  two  provinces  without  touching  any 
other  evangelical  worker. 

0 

There  are  more  ordained  ministers  in  the  state 
of  Iowa  than  in  all  South  America  with  Mexico 
and  Central  America  added. 


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Published  by 

OTie  Centenary  Commission 
of  tKe  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
MetKodist  Episcopal  CKurch 

150  Fifth  Avenue 
New  York 
1919 


